


i could fall (or i could fly)

by Bugggghead



Series: Bughead Drabbles & One Shots [25]
Category: Archie Comics, Archie Comics & Related Fandoms, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Betty is adorable, F/M, Song Lyrics, Song fic, and one summer changes everything for bughead, archie is famous, dive by ed sheeran, jughead is his lyricist, like blink and you might miss it, subtle smut, vignette style
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 04:57:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15923336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bugggghead/pseuds/Bugggghead
Summary: I could fall, or I could flyHere in your aeroplaneAnd I could live, I could dieHanging on the words you sayAnd I’ve been known to give my allAnd jumping in harder thanTen thousand rocks on the lake-a (vignette style) song fic inspired by Dive - Ed Sheeran





	i could fall (or i could fly)

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to @jandjsalmon for betaing this song!fic for me! This one shot is based off Dive by Ed Sheeran. (which I am completely and utterly obsessed with)
> 
> Additional thanks to everyone who let me bounce ideas off of them for various parts of the story (heavyliesthecrown, tory-b, thenurseholliday, peaceblessingspeyton, whaticameherefor, theheavycrown, theaterofexpression, noorakardemmomesaetre)

*

 

 

Archie Andrews and Jughead Jones may not have been brothers by blood, but the boys had grown up together, forming a bond that far surpassed any confines of a typical friendship. Both of their fathers had been lifelong friends and as Jughead’s father succumbed to the comfort of the bottle after his mother disappeared with his baby sister, Fred Andrews made no big deal of the weeknight sleepovers and extra snacks they started buying. It was never mentioned that four chairs were always set at the table at night and somewhere between middle school and high school, Jughead spent six months straight on the same mattress he now crashed on between whirlwind tours.

 

**Age 16**

 

When Archie and the Andrews moved to Chicago just before junior year, things were finally looking hopeful for the broken pieces of a family Jughead had left in Sunnyside trailer park. FP was clean, he had secured a job that paid the bills and put gas in the truck, and Jughead had been sleeping at home more than three nights a week for the first time in nearly a decade.

 

The night before Archie moved, Fred had pulled Jughead aside and noted that their new house in Chicago had an extra bed if he ever found himself without one for the night - or longer - he’d added with a warm smile.

 

**Age 18**

 

College had been a breeze. Always the faithful student Jughead studied the books more than his co-eds and clung tightly to the full-ride scholarship he’d tirelessly worked for throughout high school. He spent breaks at home in Riverdale with FP, soaking up the time he hadn’t been afforded during childhood. Jughead finally felt as if he had forgiven his father, and after many long nights filled with heartfelt confessions and tears they both agreed never to speak about it again. It was hard to hide the hope he couldn’t help but feel.

 

**Age 21**

 

Mere months before graduation, on one of the last days of his final fall semester as an undergrad, he received a phone call that shook him to his core. He had suspicions his father had been running with the motorcycle gang that’d had him in and out of jail years before, but FP’s vehement denial had made him almost believe it. Despite the few weeks a year he had been spending with his father, the word murder numbed his affection. When the word Serpents squeaked through the staticky line shortly thereafter and the news of his father’s arrest for involvement in said murder finally registered, there was only one place he thought to go. Instead of walking to his class and taking the final he had been studying for, his feet had carried him to the bus stop and his hands pulled out his wallet to pay for a one way ticket to the only family he had ever really known without much thought involved.

 

His mind was still numb when he stepped out of the Uber that carried him from the bus station to the address he knew by heart but had never visited.

 

When he trudged up the picture perfect steps of the house, Jughead expected to stay for no more than a few nights - a week, tops. But as the door swung open, Archie didn’t even seem shocked to find Jughead on the other side holding a single oversized duffle-bag clutched in one hand and his tears indecipherable from the rain bleeding through his layers. His best friend hadn’t questioned the cry for help but simply let him in to sleep off the night.

 

A few weeks in, with his prospects bleak and his missed finals too far past to make up, he had felt nearly hopeless when he heard the strange combination of words and Archie’s voice floating up through the floorboards from the shabbily sound-proofed basement.

 

When they were younger, Jughead would write songs for Archie to play with his dad’s old acoustic guitar during the particularly long ‘sleep overs’. It always passed the time and took his mind off of everything going on with the adults that they still didn’t fully understand. Rather than talking about where his dad was, Jughead would write. Instead of talking about how he missed his sister, a poem would flow freely from his fingertips; and Fred and Mary always clapped especially loud when Archie would sing the words a ten-year-old shouldn’t feel the weight of during a makeshift concert in the living room after a few uninterrupted days of the boys’ ‘rehearsals’.

 

So, when it happened again, and Jughead heard his words flowing from Archie’s mouth, he had an idea.

 

It only took one Youtube video of the soon to be heart-throb Archie Andrews crooning lines he looked like he’d never understand the depth of for his phone to ring mercilessly. After one album, a tour was on the table and part of the deal was his best friend and lyricist would travel everywhere he went.

 

**Age 22**

 

The profits from the sales were split 50/50 and Archie vocally owed half of his success to his lifelong best friend whose words were at the core of his rise to fame but no amount of money mattered when they were both too busy to spend it.

 

It was during the summer after their very first tour that he finally met Archie’s other best friend in the flesh. He’d heard plenty about the blonde bombshell who lived next door to Archie in Chicago, he’d seen pictures of her but even then he’d hardly believed she was real. Her name was Betty Cooper, and Archie had always said they were just friends, best friends at that, but just friends nonetheless; and the endless list of girlfriends he had talked about as the years went by seemed to confirm it. When he finally saw her with his own two eyes, Jughead knew that cameras had never truly captured her beauty. The soft glow of the bar lights bathed the blonde tresses tickling her shoulders in a light that made her look nearly ethereal; and when she opened her mouth, he knew she couldn’t be real.

 

**Age 23**

 

The night before they left for another world-wide tour, Betty was home for the summer and they found themselves at a ‘going away party’ thrown by some other high school friends of Archie’s. Jughead had spent three blissful hours with her arguing about their favorite authors and trading quotes from novels he could have sworn a girl who looked like her would never have cracked open. She was well read, quick witted, and gave him a run for his sarcastic commentary. But her boyfriend was only a few feet away, ‘hanging with the guys’ and pounding shots, oblivious to Jughead helplessly falling for a girl who was already taken.

 

He freely admitted to Archie a few weeks later that he might have developed a crush on the blonde who left with her boyfriend later that night, but when Archie laughed him off and said everyone loved Betty, he was hard pressed to disagree. Of course they would, she wasn’t plain old vanilla like her pristine appearance might suggest to some, she was a mix of everything all at once with a wild mirth in her eyes and a sharp tongue to boot. She could banter with the best of them all while looking like the perfect girl to take home to a family he didn’t even have. She was an enigma he wanted to unravel and he dreamed of blonde hair and emerald eyes on the particularly lonely nights on the road. Her vision didn’t dull with time because he recalled it with such frequency that it became more familiar than a mere few hours should have allowed.

 

**Age 24**

 

The next tour they returned from was much the same, a few months at the Andrews’ spent holed up in the basement writing and tweaking songs for a new album, a few weeks in the studio, and another tour shortly to follow. They were like a well oiled machine when they worked together, so in tune with each others’ creativity that one would question the merits of nature vs nurture if they ever seriously studied the boys’ bond.

 

Betty was a mainstay that particular summer, spending long days on the couch watching them play and even longer nights at bonfires and bars with the ‘group’ that had once been Archie’s and somehow eventually included Jughead, too. She was still with the same guy, the same kid who looked like the definition of a ‘meat head’ and spoke more about his fraternity than anything else. He could see the way her eyes glazed over and was caught all too often staring at her when he’d let his mind wander. But neither of them ever acknowledged it and he discovered that summer that she and Reggie Mantle had been together since high school. They were the stereotypical love story, cheerleader and quarterback fall in love their freshman year of high school and live happily ever after with a white picket fence neatly wrapped around their lives.

 

**Age 25**

 

The vision of their house on a hill with the picture perfect fence came undone the following year. The distinct lack of Reggie clinging to Betty’s side their third night home from another tour and first night out on the town, at the same bar they always went to, led to Jughead buying her a drink and making her laugh. The sounds she made were music to his years. He could write prose based on the soft lilt of her giggle, fill books with poems inspired by the way her smile would twist around her cheeks, and produce pages upon pages of lyrics about the way her eyes sparkled with an intensity that nearly knocked him off his feet. She treated him like a person, like the kind of guy he wanted to be if life ever returned to even a semblance of normalcy.

 

When she kissed him on the cheek at the end of the night, he felt an unfamiliar flutter in his chest. Being famous had burdened him with the idea somehow that he was not just himself, but he was also an image, an idol. In reality, most of his nights on tour were spent writing or reading and it was an isolated existence he was growing tired of. Archie fit into that world far better than Jughead ever could, but he didn’t want to rock of the boat of his friend’s lifelong dream finally coming to fruition so he went along for the ‘ride of a lifetime’ as his best friend continually reminded him it was supposed to be. But when Betty stood on the sidewalk, looking into his eyes after she pressed her lips, which felt far too soft to even be real, against the rough stubble on his cheek, he found himself wondering what _his_ dream was.

 

On their fourth night back, Jughead invited Betty to a movie. The old theater was nearly deserted for the classic double feature, but as the film played, she shifted closer. By the end, when the credits rolled, her hand was laced with his and her head felt heavy against his shoulder.

 

On their fifth night back, Betty kissed Jughead with a fervor he couldn’t even comprehend on the shabby couch in the basement of the Andrews’ house after a bonfire that was drowned by the summer showers. They were both soaked and slippery when she crawled onto his lap; and when the sun rose the next morning, he woke to her wrapped around his naked frame and his thoughts caught up in prose based on the still simmering tingle trailing across his skin.  

 

During that summer, his nights were filled with her: her words, her lips, her body, her mind - each unbelievably attractive in their own right. Late at night he found himself recalling Archie’s words - ‘everyone loves Betty’ - because of course they did, who wouldn’t love the angel fast asleep on his chest every night. When her eyelashes fluttered and he locked in on her half hooded gaze, he couldn’t help but kiss her and she returned the gesture in kind.

 

They spent all of their free time together as the days wore on, and she’d hum the lyrics he couldn’t help but write, inspired by her essence and all of the intoxicating aspects of immersing himself in her presence day and night.

 

The tour had been over for only a few weeks when he first felt it. He’d woken up early to stare at her tangled in his sheets, skimming his fingertips along the smooth expanse of the thigh she’d thrown over his hips, and when he leaned down to brush his lips against hers - he’d felt it. It was like a tidal wave of warmth, an onslaught of affection, a realization all at once that hit him hard.

 

He had fully fallen. He was in love, really, truly, undeniably in love with everything about Betty Cooper. From the top of her perfectly polished ponytail to the tips of her manicured toes, he loved every inch of her inside and out. And he wanted to show her.

 

He knew time wasn’t on their side - the next tour date was looming, but what would a few months mean in relation to forever? Could she be his forever? Could he be the one to give her the kind of life she deserved? Would she let him?

 

But those questions died on his lips each time they found hers. The answer seemed clear in the way she kissed him, the way she held him, and the way her whispered words of affection lulled him to sleep night after night.

 

So when he left on tour after a few weeks of those three little words dancing on the edge of his lips, and she kissed him like he had never been kissed, the note she stealthily slipped into his duffle bag nearly broke him.

 

_Thank you for indulging me. Good luck on tour and if you meet someone, know you deserve nothing but happiness, baby. This summer was a dream I will forever cherish. xoxo Betty_

 

They hadn’t talked about what would happen on tour, the elephant in the room nearly forgotten each time their skin would meet, but how could she possibly think anyone else could ever compare? How could she possibly miss the way every single part of his body had sworn his love to her even if his mouth hadn’t quite gotten there yet. It wasn’t simply a summer for Jughead, it was an awakening, two months that had forever changed the very fibre of his being.

 

The first two days were filled with tears and cramped hands from writing and rewriting his words over and over again, but it provided him with a draft that Archie was quick to work into a melody.

 

 _Maybe I came on too strong_  
_Maybe I waited too long_  
_Maybe I played my cards wrong_  
_Oh, just a little bit wrong_  
_Baby I apologize for it_

Between shows they stayed in the bus, working and reworking the chorus and recording the first rough tape of the song.

 

 _I could fall, or I could fly_  
_Here in your aeroplane_  
_And I could live, I could die_  
_Hanging on the words you say_  
_And I’ve been known to give my all_  
_And jumping in harder than_ _  
Ten thousand rocks on the lake_

 

Archie’s manager loved it and during their pit stop in Nashville, they laid down the track at a studio in a matter of hours.

 

 _So don’t call me baby_  
_Unless you mean it_  
_Don’t tell me you need me_  
_If you don’t believe it_  
_So let me know the truth_ _  
Before I dive right into you_

 

The Chicago concert loomed only one week away. Jughead stared at the envelope adorned with her name and address in his trademark chicken scratch and packed with a single ticket to the show they planned on debuting _her_ song at before dropping it in a mailbox somewhere in Michigan.

  
_You’re a mystery_  
_I have travelled the world, there’s no other girl like you_  
_No one, what’s your history?_  
_Do you have a tendency to lead some people on?_  
_'Cause I heard you do, mm_

  
As Archie’s voice flooded the theater and he spotted Betty off to the opposite side of the stage, he couldn’t help the way his mouth formed the words while his eyes stayed glued to hers.

 

 _I could fall, or I could fly_  
_Here in your aeroplane_  
_And I could live, I could die_  
_Hanging on the words you say_  
_And I’ve been known to give my all_  
_And lie awake, everyday don't know how much I can take_

 

It only took him another minute of watching her eyes cloud over with tears before he was rushing around the back of the stage to get to her. And when they met in the middle and her arms wrapped around his waist, his hands cupped her face as his thumb dried a tear descending her cheek, and he whispered the final words to her in a way only _his_ heart knew how.

  
_So don’t call me baby_  
_Unless you mean it_  
_And don’t tell me you need me_  
_If you don’t believe it_  
_So let me know the truth_  
_Before I dive right into you_

She pressed her face into his chest as he softly cooed in her ear and their bodies swayed to the rhythm.

  
_I could fall, or I could fly_  
_Here in your aeroplane_  
_And I could live, I could die_  
_Hanging on the words you say_  
_And I’ve been known to give my all_  
_Sitting back, looking at every mess that I made_

He wanted to say he was sorry when she pulled back to look at him, sorry for not telling her, sorry for leaving, sorry for not asking her to come, but his mouth found hers before he even took another breath and the final chorus was hummed against her lips.

  
_So don’t call me baby_  
_Unless you mean it_  
_Don’t tell me you need me_  
_If you don’t believe it_  
_Let me know the truth_  
_Before I dive right into you_

 _  
_ _Before I dive right into you_

 _  
_ _Before I dive right into you_

 

“Baby, I love you,” she whispered with glassy eyes and a voice so soft it was nearly drowned out by the commotion around them. But he clung to those words slipping from between her lips like he had never clung to anything in his entire life.

 

“Betty Cooper,” he paused, fingertips sliding along the smooth curve of her jaw to tilt her head up and look at her impossibly green eyes, sparkling with intensity, “I love you.”

 

**Age 35**

 

When Behind the Music called to do a special on the incomparable Archie Andrews, Jughead was a silent footnote in his best friend’s story of success by his own request. His words were still flowing from Archie’s lips, but the tour life had ended after that fateful Chicago concert and Archie’s lyricist never toured with him again, instead finally putting his earnings to good use and buying a home of his own to curate a family of four with the girl of his dreams.

 

Betty asked if he regretted anything when the phone was set snugly back in the receiver, and as his eyes skimmed the pictures on his desk - pictures of blonde boys with blue eyes and pictures of Betty in a beautiful white dress - he said no before kissing his wife with even more conviction than he held on their wedding day all those years before.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


End

*

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you thought!
> 
> come find me on tumblr @bugggghead
> 
> comments ALWAYS appreciated.


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